Walter Thomas KirbyClick to enlarge

Financial and insurance agent.

Born at Montreal on 19 May 1858, son of Thomas and Sarah Kirby, he was educated the Montreal high school then, in 1877, worked as a clerk in the Merchants Bank at Ottawa. He came to Winnipeg in 1879 and served from 1882 to 1888 as Private Secretary and Aide-de-Camp to Lieutenant-Governor James C. Aikins. He later went into partnership in an insurance business with L. M. Lewis. In 1905 he joined the firm of Oldfield and Gardner, which was henceforth known as Oldfield, Kirby and Gardner. He helped to reorganize the Winnipeg Stock Exchange in 1906 and served as its President from 1914 to 1915. He was given life membership in the Exchange in 1931, along with R. T. Riley and W. S. Evans.

In 1889, he married Edith Lascelles Gauthier (1862-?) of Singleton Park, England. They had two children: Walter Lennard Kirby (b 1891) and Shelagh Warrick Kirby (b 1903). He was a member of the Manitoba Club and the St. Charles Country Club. Recreation: golf. Conservative. Anglican. In 1911, he lived at 52 Edmonton Street, Winnipeg.

He retired from business in December 1931 and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia where he died on 17 July 1936.

The Leading Financial, Business & Professional Men of Winnipeg, published by Edwin McCormick, Photographs by T. J. Leatherdale,
Compiled and printed by Stone Limited, c1913. [copy available at the Archives of Manitoba]